Food for Thought

New York City Restaurant Cookbooks
by Lauren LampasoneApril 27, 2013

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There are lots of reasons to want to recreate favorite restaurant recipes at home. A happy memory of a meal, maybe at a place that no longer exists; the pure challenge of replicating that mystery sauce or seasoning; the desire to be thrifty, cooking in more and eating out less; improving cooking skills through imitation... having already had a taste of perfection. Some restaurant meals are just inspirational to the home cook.

Lunchroom and restaurant, Grand Central Terminal, New York. Digital ID 809542Pinterest, that virtual bulletin board loaded with visuals, is one place to browse for "copycat" recipes. There are also scores of bloggers that set out to do this for all of the popular national chain restaurants. If you're dying for Olive Garden's Fettucini Alfredo, it's not hard to find someone who has already done the research on cheese proportions for you using Google.

Here's a handy tip. Unsurprisingly, many of New York's chefs have appeared in the pages of The New York Times over the years, often sharing popular recipes from their restaurants. Using this search box, type in the name of a restaurant, chef, or dish to view only the recipes they have submitted to the paper. Try searching for the keyword "adapted" just to browse some of them.